The world is all about perspective. How do you see what is happening?
How does your brain file it away?
Good.
Bad.
Scary.
Annoying.
Manageable.
Impossible.
Those labels matter.
Those of you who have been with me for a long time know I have three daughters. One of them, Penelope, is 6’1”.
And she does not exactly try to hide it.
She loves wearing these huge boots — I think they’re called Wraith boots — that add several more inches.
So suddenly, she is standing there looking like she is 6’6”.
Now, I am 5’8”. Most people would probably say I am tall.
But put me next to Penelope in those boots, and suddenly I look very short.
But put Penelope next to my husband Brace, who is 6’4”, and suddenly she does not look quite so towering.
And that made me think about how our brains work.
Our brains are always comparing. They compare today to yesterday.
This hard thing to the last hard thing. This scary moment to the scariest thing we have already lived through.
Last week, I talked about my breast cancer.
And honestly, my perspective on breast cancer was not grim or tragic.
Was it annoying? Yes.
Were there parts of the process I hated? Absolutely.
But I was not walking around thinking, “This is the end of the world.”
Why?
Because two years earlier, I had watched Brace go through terminal cancer.
He spent months in bed.
Chemo.
Radiation.
Immunotherapy.
A feeding tube.
Not being able to eat.
Not being able to talk.
That was terrifying.
So when my breast cancer was found early, and I had great doctors and great insurance, my brain compared it to what Brace had been through.
And my experience felt completely different because of that comparison.
That is perspective.
The same thing happens in business.
You may be stressed about revenue.
Or payroll.
Or scaling.
Or a slow month.
And yes, those things matter.
But before you let fear take over, pause and ask:
What am I comparing this to?
Is this truly a crisis? Or is this a problem I can solve?
Have I handled hard things before?
What would this look like if I removed fear from the story?
Sometimes the stress is not just the situation.
Sometimes stress is the MEANING we attach to it.
And when we change the perspective, we can often make better decisions.
Less fear.
Less procrastination.
Less anxiety.
More clarity.
More wisdom.
More leadership.
So this week, if something in your business feels heavy, try looking at it from a new angle.
You may discover it is not as impossible as it first looked.
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P.S. Same person. Same height. Same business. But a different comparison can change the whole story. 💜
